Kids in exchange for deportation: Detained migrants say they were told they could get kids back...

[DonViejo]

Source: Texas Tribune




Kids in exchange for deportation: Detained migrants say they were told they could get kids back on way out of U.S.

In a detention center near Houston, an asylum seeker from Honduras said he agreed to sign a voluntary removal order from the U.S. after federal officials promised to reunite him with his 6-year-old daughter.

BY JAY ROOT AND SHANNON NAJMABADI JUNE 24, 2018 4 HOURS AGO

HOUSTON — Central American men separated from their children and held in a detention facility outside Houston are being told they can reunite with their kids at the airport if they agree to sign a voluntary deportation order now, according to one migrant at the facility and two immigration attorneys who have spoken to detainees there.

A Honduran man who spoke to The Texas Tribune Saturday estimated that 20 to 25 men who have been separated from their children are being housed at the IAH Polk County Secure Adult Detention Center, a privately-operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility for men located 75 miles outside Houston. He said the majority of those detainees had received the same offer of reunification in exchange for voluntary deportation.

The 24-year-old detainee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity and requested the Tribune use the pseudonym Carlos because he feared retaliation, told the Tribune that he abandoned his asylum case and agreed to sign voluntary deportation paperwork Friday out of “desperation” to see his 6-year-old daughter, who was separated from him after the pair illegally crossed the border in late May. The man said two federal officials suggested he’d be reunited with his daughter at the airport if he agreed to sign the order, which could lead to him being repatriated to his violence-torn home country in less than two weeks.

“I was told I would not be deported without my daughter,” said Carlos, adding that he's now hoping to revoke the voluntary deportation order he signed and get legal help to fight his case. “I signed it out of desperation… but the truth is I can’t go back to Honduras; I need help.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/06/24/kids-exchange-deportation-migrants-claim-they-were-promised-they-could/?utm_campaign=trib-social-buttons&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[riversedge]

1. More lying from Trump admin. damn

[Mr.Bill]

2. I guess they figure what's the point

of kidnapping children if you don't get a ransom. Sick bastards.

Democratic Congress members should scream at the top of their lungs about this criminal act while Congress is in session until they are forcibly removed from the chamber. Let the whole world see that picture.

[Snellius]

3. Why not just waterboard them? Or their children? Is Abu Ghraib in Texas?

Why not just torture their children in front of them until they sign? Sign here or you will never see your child again.

[Grins]

4. Our Immigration and Customs Enforcement - as subtle as the Gambino's....NM

[angstlessk]

5. I think that's called extortion?

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

6. "...a privately-operated U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility..."

And that, my friends, is why Trump and Sessions won't back down on the 100% compliance rule. There's too much money to be made in it.

[DeminPennswoods]

7. Peter Schey, the lead lawyer in "Flores" said on

O'Donnell's program this past week that based on the information the lawyers have gathered, that many of asylum seekers are being illegally deported. I'm guessing this is at least one of the reasons why.

[elleng]

8. 'after federal officials promised to reunite him with his 6-year-old daughter.'

'Federal 'officials' had damned well better get his daughter back to him!